I bought the new remote for my previous generation Apple TV and so far I hate it. The scroll pad isn't as easy to use as the old one. I often scroll over the circular button, which triggers unwanted actions. The scroll wheel doesn't work whatsoever. But my biggest complaint is that they put a mute button where the play button used to be, so I'm constantly hitting the mute button by mistake. Why do we even need a dedicated mute button?! I like the design of the remote case itself, but that's about it. Think they made a lot of bad design choices with this new remote, I'll be returning mine. As much as I complained about the old remote, I much prefer it to this.
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Hating the new remote
- Thread starter coolerkid
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That was my conclusion also.
I do actually like a mute button, but the swapping of the play/pause location was a criminal sin in my view.
Also I think the new buttons are too loud and cheap feeling/sounding -- major regression from the Siri Remote 1 on that point.
Ultimately Apple waited too long to do a new remote and our family became very acclimated to the SR1 and now we totally prefer it vs the SR2.
Major caveat though - all our SR1's are in silicone cases. Game changer.
So nice in hand and protects it very very well.
I don't hate it, and I rather like the size, but overall it feels extremely half-baked. That's a huge disappointment both for the price and because it's an Apple product. I'm hoping its functionality can and will be improved through software, but I'm certainly not buying more of these right now.
I too hated the play / mute swap.
But... when holding the new remote, my thumb naturally rests over the play button, so I see why they did it.
It took me a few days, but the new layout has worked it's way into my brain, so I'm doing pretty well with it now. I don't use siri as often, so it's taken a bit longer to get the new location into my head.
The old style remote in the bedroom that I don't use that much is now the annoying one. And it's not worth $80 to upgrade that one.
for the scroll wheel, you need to rest your finger on it for a moment, then you can use it as a scroll wheel. But, it only works if the app has been updated to use it. Several apps use apple's player, so they all work. A few have written their own player, and for the most part, those don't work yet. If you see a "donut with a dot" when resting your finger on the wheel, then it will function as a scroll wheel. If the app hasn't been updated, it treats the entire touch surface like the old touchpad, so it behaves as if you're drawing a circle on the old remote.
But... when holding the new remote, my thumb naturally rests over the play button, so I see why they did it.
It took me a few days, but the new layout has worked it's way into my brain, so I'm doing pretty well with it now. I don't use siri as often, so it's taken a bit longer to get the new location into my head.
The old style remote in the bedroom that I don't use that much is now the annoying one. And it's not worth $80 to upgrade that one.
for the scroll wheel, you need to rest your finger on it for a moment, then you can use it as a scroll wheel. But, it only works if the app has been updated to use it. Several apps use apple's player, so they all work. A few have written their own player, and for the most part, those don't work yet. If you see a "donut with a dot" when resting your finger on the wheel, then it will function as a scroll wheel. If the app hasn't been updated, it treats the entire touch surface like the old touchpad, so it behaves as if you're drawing a circle on the old remote.
The new remote is terrible! I finally changed it to click only and it’s better but you won’t be able to easily accomplish some tasks with it set to click only…
I have the newest Apple TV 4K and the remote sucks. My remote may be defective. Sometimes it won’t let me scroll in a certain direction. The click sound feels cheap and the remote has somewhat of a slight sharp aluminum top edge. They should have made the edges a little smoother. Apple needs to study everything they put out a little better and refine things a little more.
Thanks for making this thread! I have ATV4K Gen 1 and was thinking about getting the new Siri remote. Your review plus comments by others have saved me AUD$79!
It is possible many members here have gotten so used to the old remote, that using the new remote is a hard transition due to mind / finger memory etc.? I like the new remote over the old one.
I’m another data point for you. I’d bought six of the new remotes and returned them.
I’ll wait for a more substantial Apple TV spec bump at some point and just get all new everything.
Siri Remote 1’s will be just fine until then.
For those that do love the new remote, are you using it with the latest Apple TV, or an older one. Would the new remote used with the older Apple TV's offer anything more than their original remotes?
I've got one coming next week, and all I have are three, old Apple TV devices. Frankly, the current menu's on the two oldest one are awful. Navigation sucks, scrolling is slow as molasses. And of course I can't add any icons that aren't standard to the the AppleTV OS.
Time to upgrade the Apple TV I guess. Or just dig out the old black & white tube t.v. and antenna
I've got one coming next week, and all I have are three, old Apple TV devices. Frankly, the current menu's on the two oldest one are awful. Navigation sucks, scrolling is slow as molasses. And of course I can't add any icons that aren't standard to the the AppleTV OS.
Time to upgrade the Apple TV I guess. Or just dig out the old black & white tube t.v. and antenna
If you disable the touchpad in the ATV settings, the new remote will behave just like that old remote did.
That's what I did; I'm actually enjoying it more without the touch feature.
Agree on the cases! Mine also has a magnet and lanyard and it solves all the problems for me.
The new remote is 100x better. The old was designed for tech nerds who wanted to watch 10min YT videos on how to actually use it...this one is crafted as plug and play, anyone can scoop it up and be familiar with it just using it for a couple minutes.
Turning the touch sensitive off on it makes it even more handy, actually.
Turning the touch sensitive off on it makes it even more handy, actually.
I'm glad to see this thread. Since purchasing a new 4k Apple TV last week I have been wondering about this remote. It's pretty bad, and I have switched back and forth between turning off the track pad function and turning it back on. When on, it's just not good and does strange things at times. Even the Apple TV remote on the iphone is better!
I purchased a seperate remote (same one) for my older HD Apple TV and it works fine on that one. So I am not sure if the problem is the remote itself or the way it interacts with the 4k Apple TV. I SHOULD try swapping them but doing so seems to be a major pain in the butt so I have resisted so far.
I purchased a seperate remote (same one) for my older HD Apple TV and it works fine on that one. So I am not sure if the problem is the remote itself or the way it interacts with the 4k Apple TV. I SHOULD try swapping them but doing so seems to be a major pain in the butt so I have resisted so far.
Huh, that's pretty strange. I've recently re-enabled the trackpad and it's behaving a lot better now. I'm thinking they might have fixed things in a software update between when I got it and had my initial experience, and now.
Make sure your ATV is up to date and also let it update the remote's firmware too if it hasn't yet.